Selma-to-Montgomery Historic Trail Opens

The Selma-to-Montgomery Historic Trail, maintained by the National Park Service, is a memorial to the historic 1965 voting rights march that was instrumental in raising support for the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The most famous part of the march was “Bloody Sunday,” on March 7, 1965, when local police and state troopers brutally beat civil rights activists trying to begin the march in Selma, Alabama. The march resumed on March 21, 1965, and reached Montgomery, the state capitol of Alabama, on March 25, 1965. The march helped generate public and political support for a voting rights law, and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965.